Smallville: Fragile

Clark: "You don't have to turn into your father."
Maddie: "Maybe I don't have a choice."

I was mildly bored with the glass-breaking meteor freak main plot, despite the superior acting by Emily Hirst (Maddie) and Callum Keith Rennie (psycho daddy). It's possible that they were going for a parallel: Maddie and her father, Clark and Jor-El. If this was indeed their intention, I wish they had included the Clark and Jor-El part. Because we still don't know what's going on with Lionel.

Tom Welling directed this episode, and he did fine; it was okay for the most part. The pacing seemed off, though; I kept thinking that it was over when it wasn't. And then there was Clark himself. He seemed way too sweet all the time. Is this how Tom sees his own character? All sugar, no spice? Or was it the writers?

Maddie's immediate and unbreakable (pun intended) bond with Clark and jealousy of Lois was kind of cute. But how could Clark leave Lois with someone who could possibly kill her? Clark's certainty that Maddie would never deliberately hurt anyone was based on way too little information. Okay, he was right, but still – Lois did get shish kebob'd, didn't she? And if Clark had stuck around, it wouldn't have happened. You know, I'm more than ready for Clark to finally get around to noticing and/or caring about Lois.

At least I got one thing I really wanted: Lex and Lana have finally locked lips, and Lana seems ready to make Lex her rebound guy. But why was this tacked on at the end of the episode, like an afterthought?

The other part I liked was Chloe confronting Lex. "If you hurt my friend, there will be a consequence. And you're looking at her." Lex countered with, "I think I'm getting an inkling why you've never had a boyfriend." Chloe should be more careful. Lex gets more dangerous all the time. Would he kill Chloe? Maybe not yet, but I can feel it coming.

Bits and pieces:

— Tom Welling did a good job of calling attention to the glass in every scene. It made the threat seem more, well, threatening.

— The glasses thing was icky. And we lost yet another sheriff.

— Lois is now Martha's chief of staff. Good. There hasn't been enough Lois lately.

— Callum Keith Rennie, who shows up eventually in nearly all of my favorite shows, plays one of the Cylons on another show I review, Battlestar Galactica. BSG is an outstanding show, one of my two current favorites. Okay, plug over.

— Major AOL product placement. Bleah.

— Lex told Lana that he trusts her. But didn't she steal his Porsche in the last episode?

— Lex speaks fluent Japanese. Did we know that?

— Shelby the dog was back after a fairly long period in which there was no need for a dog in the plot.

Quotes:

Lois: "Don't let her rosy cheeks and saucer eyes sway you. That girl's one step short of the demon seed."
Maddie's braids and manner actually reminded me of the child killer played by outstanding young actress Patty McCormack in the classic old movie, The Bad Seed.

Clark: "Hey. How's Lana?"
Chloe: "I was wondering when you were going to bring up the L word."

I had trouble making myself watch this episode a second time, which is always a sure sign that I didn't care for it. Two out of four stars,

Billie
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Billie Doux had a love-hate relationship with Smallville, which is why some of her reviews are briefer than they should be.

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